An iron bed with a sagless spring! But the best part: "It may remain in ceiling witout collecting dust." Really? Does it collect rats? Nutria? Roof rats? There's lots of cool stuff like that in *my* attic!

*

Kind of an interesting concept. I doubt anyone would be willing to try this today. Imagine the lawsuit potential!

*

I'm not sure how this "false ceiling panel" closes automatically.

*

Yes, you read that right: 790 pounds (first paragraph). And it's also interesting that this thing only works for houses with an "attic above." Can you imagine cranking this thing down and finding a rat sitting on your bed? Blech.

*

And you can use it with a double bed!

*

Looks like a lot of work to me.

*

Now that's a serious pulley.

*

Close-up on the prior image.

*

The text above says that the "bed is raised or lowered with a removable crank." Wonder if that's a subtle reference to his visiting mother-in-law?

Sears always had an interesting way of ciphering. The Calumet was a four-apartment kit “house” with 12 rooms. The “20 rooms in 12″ was a little misleading.

The eight mystery rooms were “bedrooms” which were really teeny-tiny closets. Inside those eight tiny closets were eight fold-away beds (Murphy beds). The “bedroom in a closet” idea was heralded as a great space-saving device and a money-saving device too. After all, there’s no need to buy rugs and pictures and chairs and night stands when you sleep in a closet.

The typical Sears Home was a 12,000 piece kit that was bundled and shipped in one boxcar. The Calumet was probably a bit more than 12,000 pieces. It was 2,800+ square feet, but it also had four kitchens and four bathrooms and a lot of steps, railings and porches. And a lot of doors.

The built-in wall beds came with the Sears Calumet. They were hidden behind nice-looking French doors! I wonder how long these primitive metal-framed beds survived in these old four-plexes?

*

Only three rooms per apartment, but they are fairly spacious. And note the small windows in the "bedroom" (closet).

*

Close-up on those wall beds in the dining room and living room.

*

The "Cinderella" was another Sears House that promoted use of stowaway beds. Note the text at the bottom of this page: "You are saved the expense of two extra bedrooms in your house, as well as the additional expense of rugs and furniture..."

How many baby boomers even know what a “Murphy Bed” is? In the early years of the 20th Century, these ingenious space-saving devices were all the rage. And they were practical, too. What good’s a bed during the middle of the day? When the sun pops up in the morning, it’s time to make the bed, fluff the pillows and tuck the bed back into the closet.

“The Cinderella” (so named because the house was so small it required less work), was a cute and cozy kit home offered by Sears in the early 1920s. This little bungalow made good use of its small spaces by incorporating a murphy bed. Take a look at the pictures below to see how they did things in the 1920s. All images are from the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog.